


I Know A Hero Will Come

by MoonMoon2020



Category: The Protomen
Genre: Mentioned Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-12 09:15:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16870228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonMoon2020/pseuds/MoonMoon2020
Summary: She knew that a hero would come, but until then she would gladly play the part.





	I Know A Hero Will Come

After what happened, life was never the same for her. Suddenly, she was alone in the world, without either of her brothers by her side. The sudden loss had struck her and her father deeply. Doctor Light no longer worked on his secret projects, instead wandering about like a dead man walking. She knew that he’d lost all hope. When the news reached them and they saw the smoke rising from the direction of the fortress, Doctor Light had made her promise to never go against the robots.

At the time, she’d agreed, although even then there was a spark in her heart, and urge to avenge her brothers’ and carry their legacy. Even if they’d failed, she wanted to be like them: a hero.

Instead, she found herself living in an apartment twenty floors above the dangerous streets of the city, watching day after day as the city recovered from a massacre and returned to their daily lives. She watched them sometimes. Without her brother she had plenty of free time, and often when she wasn’t mourning she was struggling for entertainment. Doctor Light tried his best to amuse her, but she could tell his heart wasn’t in it. His mind was always on his sons.

When the grief passed, she realized something. When ProtoMan died, the people simply returned to their normal lives, only whispering about his memory. With the loss of MegaMan, the people were doing the exact same thing: nothing. They simply did nothing in reaction to witnessing the death of a hero. Even when countless died at the hands of Wily’s robots, no one _did_ anything. No one protested, no one demanded that the victims’ lives be avenged.

It was like the entire city had given up. Even her own father had given up hope. He didn’t do anything. He didn’t try again. He didn’t make any plans of defeating Wily once and for all. He just... gave up.

The realization made her angry. There had to be a way. A way for someone to save them all. She knew that she wasn’t strong enough alone. Both of her brothers faced the robot army alone, and both had fallen. She needed to find a way, a way for them to realize that there was still a glimmer of hope.

She’d always wanted to be like her brother. When her father told her stories of ProtoMan, the first, she’d been in awe. Like any young child, she’d daydreamed of following in the footsteps of her heroic brother, except where he’d failed, she would succeed. Rock had had the same daydreams. He’d gone to make those dreams reality, but he only fell as well, making the same mistake: he’d believed that the populace would support him. She understood. She understood that simply calling herself a hero would not give the people true hope. She knew that a hero would come and save them all one day, but who would believe her if she said so? Everyone saw the results of the previous two. No one believed anymore. There was only Wily, and it would always be Wily.

But didn’t Doctor Light once tell her that he couldn’t cage the world, that it was too big for anyone? He’d said such during a night when the despair wasn’t as thick over him, when he’d felt more optimistic than normal.

She knew. She knew that some day, Doctor Wily would be taken down. Nothing lasted forever, not even the dystopian regime that Wily had created. Someone had to be out there. A hero would come for them.

The city was dying. Someone needed to save it, someone needed to keep the spark alive until the death and despair finally left. If her brothers couldn’t do it, then the responsibility had to fall to someone. She was willing to take that responsibility if she had to.

When she first spoke to Doctor Light, he’d immediately shot down her ideas. He’d told her that all of her heroes were gone. He’d told her that there was nothing left, that the only thing left to do was to let the city die. It was too late for anyone, and they would all be lost to Doctor Wily eventually. Best not to rock the boat and simply let fate take its course. She’d seen what happened when someone tried to bring about a change.

His words had made her angry. She’d fled to her room and, in her anger, she’d contemplated running from home and just doing it.

Then she’d realized that that was exactly what Rock had done, and what good had that done him? He’d been unable to do anything, in the end. She couldn’t run blindly to Doctor Wily and challenge him and his regime. She would simply be abandoned and destroyed.

She needed to make the people believe first. And to do that, she needed to make herself known in another way.

She knew her father would never approve of her stirring up riots. But she also knew that she couldn’t be the only one in this city who felt this way. Someone else had to know that there was still hope, that the city was dying but still had a chance. Surely she couldn’t be the only one who could hear the city’s distant cries for help over the chorus of “We are the dead.”

“We are the dead.” She hated the phrase. She was going to prove it wrong, one way or another. She was going to prove that there were still heroes, even in this desolate world.

She knew a hero would come. However, the city still needed someone, anyone, in the meantime. She was very much willing to play the part.

Her father didn’t know what she did when night fell and he locked himself up in his room. He didn’t know that, as soon as the coast was clear, she would take her brother’s torn yellow scarf and her brother’s battered blue helmet and sneak from the apartment, quietly traveling twenty stories down to do things that could get her killed if she wasn’t careful.

The city streets were calm at night. Few people dared to go out anymore, not with Wily’s sentries keeping an eye out for anyone doing anything suspicious. Countless innocent people have disappeared because of his robots, but she wouldn’t be one of them. She went out, and she made plans with others who wanted a change. Others who knew what she knew and believed what she believed. Others who weren’t scared of the robots and understood that something needed to happen, and now.

Only once was she pursued by a robotic assassin. Only once, and it was a night no one would forget, even if she was its sole witness.

It came for her, and she fought back. Before the machine could react, she’d shot it through the heart with her own gun. As it collapsed to the ground, bleeding the same oil that flowed in her veins, she knew. She would fight back, just like her brothers once did. But this time, she would win.

Her name was Roll Light, the last living creation of Doctor Thomas Light. She knew that a hero would come and save them, but until then, she would fight for a dying city in the hopes that they would one day see that they could still be saved.


End file.
